FEBRUARY Hatch-A-Long 2015:Please Read First Post To Join H-A-L

[oolyboolu]

The first baby out! Got 5 more working on emerging

Yay!

 

[LadyHawkeAvry]

Breech baby has kicked free and is resting in the incubator, leaving me with one more egg in the incubator of mother duck's that I am hatching. No movement yet, but I'll see what happens when it gets punted around the incubator by its' lively sibling....

 

[Heron's Nest Farm]

Question everyone:
My incubator shot up to 99% humidity when I flooded the channels last night for lockdown. Is there any chance of the humidity staying too high and killing my chicks. Stressing instead of enjoying this. Hen hatching seems so friendly!

 

[rainbowchick]

[COLOR=800080]Question everyone:[/COLOR]
[COLOR=800080]My incubator shot up to 99% humidity when I flooded the channels last night for lockdown.  Is there any chance of the humidity staying too high and killing my chicks.  Stressing instead of enjoying this.  Hen hatching seems so friendly![/COLOR]

Has it gone down at all?
If you added extra sponges or cups, I'd take those out. Also, I'd try opening the bator to let the humidity out and then see where the level is at.

 

[LadyHawkeAvry]

Question everyone:
My incubator shot up to 99% humidity when I flooded the channels last night for lockdown. Is there any chance of the humidity staying too high and killing my chicks. Stressing instead of enjoying this. Hen hatching seems so friendly!

What does the humidity read at the moment? Too high for too long can make for sticky chicks. If it is still up there, open it up for a second to let some of that humidity out and then give it a few minutes to equalize before reading the hygrometer again. If you have things like sponges in there to increase the humidity I would pull them out as well if it is still reading high.

 

[vonrow]

update: Day 21 is here!

The 4 early birds have been moved to the brooder to make room in the incubator yesterday. We had to give 3 eggs a smidgen of help with their egg escape efforts. (our Wyandottes lay some nuclear strength eggs with super tuff shells) So last night we closed the 'bator with 3 cracked eggs and one that had just pipped. Two of them hatched out by 6:00am this morning and the 3rd popped out a few hours later. They are busy flopping around the incubator right now. We noticed another 5 eggs have pipped as well. If they make it then that would put the hatch rate at a tad over 50% so far. Here's a shot of the early-bird 4some. (they are now 2.5 days old, they hatched out on lockdown, day 18)

 

[cedarcovefarm]

Great to see the new hatches. Still waiting on a few more of mine. You'd think the other chicks would have smashed them open by now. They're so rough!

 

[bekkanblue]

Good luck and Congrats to all the hatching going on today!!!

My next batch locks down on Sun so isn't a Feb HAL group. The base-jumping seven from Feb are playing some sort of weird kick-boxing/rugby game with a piece of parsley. Well 6 of them are, the other one seems to be cheerleading for whichever team is ahead. And the teams seem to be fluid... I can't keep up but they seem to be having a great time. Oops, must be half time, all just dove under the hot plate. It is kind of cool in the house, but a sunny balmy 5 degrees outside.

 

[Heron's Nest Farm]

What does the humidity read at the moment? Too high for too long can make for sticky chicks. If it is still up there, open it up for a second to let some of that humidity out and then give it a few minutes to equalize before reading the hygrometer again. If you have things like sponges in there to increase the humidity I would pull them out as well if it is still reading high.

Has it gone down at all?
If you added extra sponges or cups, I'd take those out. Also, I'd try opening the bator to let the humidity out and then see where the level is at.

SO I cracked the bator to bring down humidity. It's at 80%. That seems really high. My concern is that if I remove some of the water I may need to add some later. How crucial does everyone feel about NEVER opening the bator during day 20? I would only do so to quickly throw a glass of water in the channel, like 5 seconds.

I thought 70% is what you wanted for hatch?

 

[LadyHawkeAvry]

SO I cracked the bator to bring down humidity. It's at 80%. That seems really high. My concern is that if I remove some of the water I may need to add some later. How crucial does everyone feel about NEVER opening the bator during day 20? I would only do so to quickly throw a glass of water in the channel, like 5 seconds.

I thought 70% is what you wanted for hatch?

80% is still to high, you want 65% - 70% for lockdown. As long as nobody has pipped, you are OK to open the incubator up briefly to get the humidity back on track. I use a syringe inserted into one of my vent holes to add more water once lockdown begins, so I don't have to open the lid. Be sure to keep your vents open as well - the chicks need a lot of oxygen to hatch. If the vents are closed it can keep your humidity up too high as well.